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Posted January 16, 2008 06:39 am - Updated March 29, 2010 02:26 pm

Good riddance to a racial slur

Carl Elmore

Holy hip-hop and gospel rapper Zion helped bury the "N" word Tuesday during a mock funeral at Savannah High School. The ceremony was held in conjunction with the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. (Carl Elmore/Savannah Morning News)

Carl Elmore

Precious Garvin, center, smiles as she sings in the "N" Word Haters' Choir on Tuesday at Savannah High School. (Carl Elmore/Savannah Morning News)

Carl Elmore

Savannah High School students Miesha Williams, at left, and Tranice Ross, sign the funeral register at the Bury the "N" Word mock funeral Tuesday. (Carl Elmore/Savannah Morning News)

Carl Elmore

Prince Jackson Jr., Savannah Branch NAACP president, eulogized the "N" word Tuesday during a mock funeral at Savannah High School. He asked students for a pledge not to use the word. (Carl Elmore/Savannah Morning News)

Mourners signed a funeral register and filed past a white and gold casket at the Savannah High auditorium Tuesday morning.

They came to bury the "N" word.

Teacher and WEAS radio announcer Lester L'eck White and his Savannah High Gents HBO Club organized the ceremony. They were following the example of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which buried the slur at its national convention in Detroit last summer.

Club members had already begun trying to break their own "N"-word habits.

Tyrique Montgomery Jr., the club's vice president, has spent the last two months saying "my brother" where he might have used the "N" word before.

The club, which calls itself a student brotherhood organization, expanded its message school-wide Tuesday in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.'s 79th birthday.

The HBO by the way, alternately stands for "Home Boys Only" or "Helping Brothers Out," depending on whom you ask.

The hourlong assembly featured an a capella group dubbed the "N Word Haters Choir," which regaled the assembly with a version of the civil rights anthem "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round" updated as "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Use the "N" Word."

Gospel hip-hop artist Zion performed his hit "Let Me In."

Students quieted for a eulogy delivered by 80-year-old Prince Jackson Jr., president of the Savannah Branch NAACP. He told them he had been in his share of fights over the word, which he likened to profanity.

"It hurts," he said. "I've been one of those who fought the use of it. Every time I hear it, it stings."

In Jackson's view, there's no acceptable way to use the word.

"Don't think when you're using it casually you're not using a low-down dirty word," he said.

Still, when Jackson asked rhetorically who would be the first among them to invoke the slur after the assembly, half a dozen boys raised their hands.

Later, Jackson asked students to raise their right hands and pledge not to use the word. Many did. To no one's surprise, the word proved hard to kill.

Like a creature in a cut-rate horror movie, the slur was hardly in its coffin for an hour when it was resurrected in the Blue Jackets' cafeteria.

"Get me that n-'s shirt," one student yelled to another.

Sgt. Robby Fort heard the word several times just after the assembly, he said. Organizers of the event say their effort is a start.

"Even if we don't convert more than six or seven people, it's worth the effort," Jackson said.